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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Is this the end of the road for VMware Server? | Virtualization - InfoWorld

Is this the end of the road for VMware Server?

VMware's hosted or Type-2 hypervisor has been around for nearly a decade. But has this virtualization platform reached end of life?

There has been quite a bit of interesting chatter and a whole lot of speculation within the VMware community lately about the future and viability of its free VMware Server product. VMware does seem focused on the vSphere product and how it ultimately relates to cloud computing, but have they turned a blind eye to VMware Server?

People are curious. So answers are needed. The first question, is VMware Server being discontinued? Second, is VMware even still remotely interested in advancing this Type-2 or hosted virtualization platform? And finally, why do end-users care? Isn't this old technology? Why not just upgrade to vSphere?

The VMware Server virtualization platform has been in existence for nearly a decade and really does have quite an interesting history. Even though vSphere is the current champion with VMware and its users, Server still has a strong fan base.

VMware Server has been the little brother to VMware ESX Server ever since the two platforms first hit the streets as 1.0 products back in 2001. Originally called VMware GSX Server (where GSX is said to have stood for Ground Storm thanks to its supposed hippie beginnings), this product looked more like its desktop cousin, VMware Workstation, than it did its older brother ESX Server (also said to have stood for Electric Sky -- I'm not making this stuff up) because it was a Type-2 or hosted virtualization platform, meaning that it was installed and operated on top of a host operating system rather than being directly installed on the bare-metal of the server itself.

As the product matured, it seemed to take on the role of a proving ground for both VMware and its customers. VMware could use Server as a test bed to try out new features and functionalities before rolling them out for its more enterprise offering with ESX. From a consumer perspective, Server was a cheaper (and later a free) alternative for getting into the virtualization game. And once virtualized with Server, it was a fairly easy migration path to upgrade to the more enterprise-ready ESX Server product line down the road.

In 2006 VMware changed the name from GSX Server to Server and at the same time made the product free of charge. Since then VMware has used Server to help seed the market and encourage people to adopt VMware virtualization technologies.

So where does Server stand now? And does this discussion have any merit?

When asked directly if Server was going to be discontinued, VMware never really gave me a definitive answer. Instead Mark Chuang, group manager for product marketing at VMware, said VMware doesn't comment on future road map plans. However, Chuang did say that his company is committed to offering a broad portfolio of Type-1 and Type-2 hypervisor products going forward to address broad customer needs.

Chuang added, "We do see the broader server market shifting toward Type-1 hypervisor products for performance reasons. However, VMware will continue to have Type-1 and Type-2 products that will meet the needs of the server market."

So what exactly does this mean if we read between the lines? Chuang says that VMware will continue to invest in Type-2 hypervisors going forward, and we know that VMware plans to continue advancing and supporting its Workstation platform, a Type-2 virtualization platform. But Chuang says that its Type-2 products will "meet the needs of the server market." Workstation is a desktop virtualization platform, so it doesn't fit the bill of a server product.

What is defined as a VMware server-class platform? On the company's website, it lists VMware vSphere, VMware Server, and VMware vSphere Hypervisor (formerly called ESXi) as the only three server-class products. Also, vSphere and vSphere Hypervisor are both clearly Type-1 hypervisor products. Does that mean Server is indeed safe from getting the axe? Well, maybe not.

Although Server is still available for download on VMware's website, the product hasn't been updated for the last nine months -- not since Oct. 26, 2009, when it reached version 2.0.2. It also has known security vulnerabilities such as VMSA-2010-0005 and VMSA-2009-0016 that list Server 2.0.x security remedies as either "not being fixed at this time" or "affected, patch pending" -- not exactly comforting answers to those who are still using the product.